By Chris Darnell
Sometimes it is easy to get so carried away with some of the trappings in life that we forget the main thing. We get caught up in the style of our worship that we forget about Jesus. We get so busy doing stuff that we can lose sight of who it is that we are doing it for. We can even get so buried in christian books, christian music, christian bumper stickers and christian t-shirts that we forget Christ. Let's not fall into this trap. Let us, as Hebrews 12:1 says "let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Mark
Brian
Mark: Brian, how's it going?
Brian: Mark! Great! What have you been up to?
Mark: Well, you'll never guess... I was down at that garage sale just a few doors down from me, flicking through old records, snapped cricket bats, little pink nick nacks and 1972 editions of Readers Digest when I saw it...
Brian: Saw what?
Mark: I knew there was something special about it when I picked it up... it was wondewful Brian... The colour, the size, the smell, the formatting, the pictures...
Brian: What was it?
Mark: A manual!
Brian: A manual?
Mark: Yes, a car manual.... a Nissan Sentra Model N15 Series Owners Manual!
Brian: You found a... car manual... A standard old car manual?
Mark: No you're wrong... this isn't something boring... it's fascinating Brian... from the pictures on the page showing you where to put the wiper fluid to those bold and all-so-important safety warning surrounded by punctuated exclamation marks... the technical information at the back... the space for notes... I tell you Brian, I just started to read and I got hooked!
Brian: You found a car manual.
Mark: Yes, and I think it is has changed my life... you see I was reading section nine, page eleven about the "Crankhouse emission control system" did you know that the system "serves to prevent the emission of blow-by gases into the atmosphere"? I tell, you, this book is wonderful. However, I was stumped when I read about the Positive Crankhouse Ventilation (PCV) control valve which returns blow-by gases to the combustion chamber. Brian, I hadn't come across this bit before, and it stumped me... blow-by gases??? But being the clever and ingenius man I am, I went onto the internet and did a wee search. You'll never guess what I found!
Brian: A bunch of loonies?
Mark: Take this seriously... I think this is it... I found a bunch of people like me...
Brian: Uh huh...
Mark: Yes, more people with a passion for Nissan N15 Car Manuals... And we have become... community! Yes! We share our interpretations of various pieces of manual, our stories of the first time we read the manual. We take polls on our favourite sections and subsections, and have even managed to locate the name of the man who translated the manual. Richard is from England, and he has written an essay on the intrinsic artistic qualities of those little diagrams.. He has studied the nuances of the line strokes and diagramatic representations of various car parts. Brad from Texas USA has become particularly proficcient on the technical section in the back. He knows by memory the cylinder arrangement, bore and stroke, displacement and firing order of every model.
Brian: So you've become something of an expert on this manual then?
Mark: They've elected me moderator of our web community...
Brian: And you like the old Nissan car then?
Mark: A car?
Brian: The car.
Mark: A car?
Brian: The Nissan N15 series
Mark: Well... I've never really taken much notice of the car myself... I drive a Toyota...
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Copyright Chris Darnell, all rights reserved.
This script may be used without payment, provided no charge is made for admission
to the performance. In return, the author would like to be told of any performance.
He may be contacted at sirhcllenrad@paradise.net.nz